The jig for drilling holes greatly facilitates the work of furniture makers and other professionals who, by the nature of their activities, have to do precise holes in wood, chipboard, MDF, metal and other materials.
What kind of conductors are there and is it possible to make this device with your own hands - the main issues that the article is devoted to.
Basic information about conductors
Conductors - simple devices, a kind of templates that have been successfully used in mechanical engineering for a long time.
They allow you to make a hole in the right place and at a strictly defined angle. The scope of conductors is very wide, from drilling machines to diamond drilling installations.
Today everyone furniture master has in its arsenal a set of these tools that allow you to assemble furniture cases, install fittings and perform other operations.
Conductors are needed in construction (for example, to make holes in the wall of a building) and various industries.
As a rule, only overhead models are used here, which are made from lightweight materials to facilitate the work of the master.
The furniture conductor can be factory-made or hand-made.
Many craftsmen have such a trained eye and precise hand that it is not at all difficult for them to drill holes for right angle without additional devices. However, this requires vast experience and, perhaps, talent.
With the help of the tool to which this article is devoted, even a novice furniture maker will be able to make precise holes for dowels and assemble cabinet furniture without complicated preliminary calculations and markup. This reduces the labor intensity and, therefore, the cost of the work and speeds up the process.
Before you buy or make a conductor, you need to decide on the varieties and purpose.
Overhead conductors are named so due to the fact that they are superimposed on the workpiece with which to work. They are either fixed on the part, or simply held by hand.
With the help of overhead tools, for example, holes are made in MDF boards.
Swivel jigs are needed if you need holes on the surface of the cylinder. Inclined, vertical and horizontal axis of rotation allow you to drill holes at different angles.
Unified conductors are especially in demand in small-scale production, where it is necessary to drill many holes in the same type of parts of various sizes.
This is possible due to the ability to readjust the tool under different size details.
The scope of tilting conductors is the need to make holes in several planes.
The sliding conductor does not need to be fixed on the surface of the machine - it is attached to the specific surface in which it is necessary to drill a hole.
It is more convenient to work with fixed models, but sliding ones give the master a certain freedom of action when working on a single-spindle drilling machine, especially if several holes are needed on one surface.
Something about the scope
Drilling jig is included in the list necessary tools for furniture assembly. One of the difficulties when making any holes is that the drill can enter the drilled material at the wrong angle.
It can take a lot of effort and time to correct the situation, in addition, not all errors can be corrected.
The conductor serves not only as a template, thanks to which the master understands where to drill, but also guides the drill, preventing it from deviating from the given direction.
First of all, the tool is necessary for specialists who produce furniture, but it is not uncommon during assembly when the finished furniture set does not have the necessary holes, for example, for dowels.
The jig is indispensable for drilling thin slabs, such as chipboard, for making holes at an angle and many other operations.
Precise, simple, fast assembly of furniture always takes place with the participation of this tool. With it, you can make a hole at any distance from the edge of the part, regardless of its width.
One of the operations in which you cannot do without a conductor is the installation of dowels.
By and large, dowels are last century, in modern furniture production already use other types of fasteners to connect various parts of cabinet furniture. However, the connection with the help of dowels is still quite widely used.
The main difficulty in mounting them lies precisely in the accuracy of the location of the holes, and in a strictly perpendicular direction, so that you can connect the parts at an angle of 90 °.
If even one hole is in the wrong place or at the wrong angle, this will lead to errors that are quite difficult to correct. Special tool called a jig for drilling under dowels (doweling jig).
Furniture is a common, but not the only scope for drilling tools. The second important direction is the drilling of pipes and other cylindrical blanks. Conductors allow you to drill even pipes of small diameter.
If you collect different types of drilling templates on the same workbench, it turns out that they are very different in appearance and size.
Some are easier to buy factory-made, especially if making tools is not your hobby, others can be made by hand without much difficulty.
Multifunctional conductors from well-known manufacturers not cheap - collecting them yourself, you can save a lot.
Conductors of own production
The simplest tools are inexpensive, so many craftsmen find it easier to buy them. However, there are enthusiasts for whom tool making is of particular interest.
In addition, with your own hands you can make a really durable tool that will faithfully last for many years.
Another reason to make your own tool is if you need a template for custom holes.
The Internet has a large number of drawings and video instructions for the manufacture of conductors for drilling with your own hands.
This requires a set of tools:
- drill;
- angular Grinder(Bulgarian);
- standard set of locksmith tools;
- welding machine - not necessary in all cases, but for making the most complex tools with your own hands, it may be required.
Another argument "for" the independent manufacture of conductors - each master will surely have necessary blanks to make them: wooden blocks, pieces of rebar, metal plates.
The jig-template for precise marking and drilling of holes on it is so simple that even a novice master can make it.
Take armature from square section 10 x 10 mm (or larger) - the required length must be cut with a hacksaw or a grinder.
Sections are preferably prepared with a file and sandpaper. This is the basis of the future conductor.
Now you need to mark the holes. One of them should be at a distance of 8 mm from the edge of the jig - at this distance is the central part of the chipboard board.
Furniture standards dictate the pitch between the holes - it is 32 mm. According to this marking, it is necessary to drill holes with a diameter of 5 mm.
The conductor is almost ready for use, but if you equip it with an emphasis, then it will be much more convenient to assemble furniture.
It is made from a metal plate 1 mm thick and 25 mm wide. The workpiece for the stop must be bent at a right angle and fixed in the clamp together with the finished part made of reinforcement.
Now you need to make holes for the thread and fasten the two parts together with bolts.
Furniture conductor can be equipped with half plastic bottle so that drilling holes is not so dusty. From the same plastic bottle, you can build a small pallet for collecting chips.
This is the simplest jig for drilling holes, thanks to which the assembly of cabinet furniture will become much easier.
With it, you do not have to worry that the drill may enter into chipboard crooked or drill through it.
Drilling jig - an indispensable attribute on large-scale production, no matter which one. Where there is a lot of drilling, it is really necessary, especially when production is serial or mass.
With a conductor to a large extent production is accelerating, the labor of the worker is facilitated.
A drilling jig, as a rule, is a bar (plate) with holes and bushings (sleeves). By means of a conductor, it is much easier, for example, to drill pipes.
As for the production of furniture, they are also used here, although recently.
With this equipment, the manufacturer is relieved of the following problems:
- Markup.
- Punching (point recesses in the material for the drill).
- Drilling with observance of perpendicularity.
Some operations, such as dowel drilling (short wooden rods designed for hidden joining of parts), require very precise marking, and no less precise drilling at an angle of 90°.
With such a device as a conductor, these tasks are solved easily and simply.
Types: choose the one you need
Overhead. They do not need fixing before their intended use. Structurally simple, mobile, but they need to be kept free from the drill by hand, since often the equipment is not fixed in a special device, which is not very convenient. Considering simplicity of design making it by hand is pretty easy. Applicable for chipboard drilling and MDF.
Angle drilling jigs. The design is easy to imagine as the name speaks for itself. Such equipment can also be consignment note. In production quality furniture there is also drilling at an angle, which is not the easiest operation in manufacturing process- it takes skill. Although in this case, the desired angle is sometimes violated, the assembly as a result will no longer be of such high quality and suffer appearance furniture, especially if it is not made of chipboard, but of wood - here you can’t putty on ugly drilling. The equipment of the desired design completely eliminates unnecessary problems.
Rotary jigs. They have folding brackets, and this allows drilling on two adjacent planes.
Sliding gearboxes. With their help, without reinstallation, you can drill several holes. To work with such equipment, however, the necessary skills are required.
Device for drilling holes for dowels and confirmations
Despite the fact that today furniture industry a lot of new fittings appeared, the good old dowel is still used. This is due to the fact that the connections are not visible through this piece of fittings, and this is especially valuable in the production of furniture from natural wood.
As already mentioned, dowel drilling creates a lot of problems for furniture makers, especially those who are not qualified enough.
In order to furniture planes were perfectly joined, it is necessary precise marking, and this equipment allows you to speed up the work and bring the quality to the desired level.
Working with confirmations - special furniture screws - although less troublesome, but also requires certain skills. And given how many holes you need to mark and drill before screwing the confirmation in one piece of furniture, such a device will greatly speed up the work, and its quality too.
The simplest devices
- The conductor is two-slider. It allows you to drill holes in two adjacent (mating) parts. The fixture is constructed from two rulers that serve as guides and are connected to mounting plate. The holes made in it make it possible to set the bar on the details different widths. Housings moved along the rulers (replaceable) have a set of guide bushings, where the distances between them are different. The conductor is fixed by means of a connecting strip, with opposite side there is also a stroke limiter, pressed by a lamb screw.
- The conductor is multiposition. Attaches with clamps. The design allows for vertical drilling. It is made from thick-walled aluminium. Since the device has a considerable length, it is equipped with intermediate fastening in the center of the structure. The thick wall of the angle was very successfully used, which cannot be overestimated at the moment the device is applied to the surface of the part and when the conductor is reinstalled by 90 °. The selection of the distance between the bushings is carried out according to the most common values \u200b\u200bfor the installation of dowels or confirmations.
How to work with a conductor:
- The device is fixed on the workpiece.
- The sleeve is inserted into the hole.
- Drill through the sleeve.
Do-it-yourself furniture conductor: drawings with dimensions to help
Principle of this equipment:
- Corner case. It is superimposed on the plane of the parts, which will then be connected to each other.
- Guide bushings. A drill will enter through them.
- Clamping devices. They fix the conductor and are made from the end part.
Designing your own jig should be based on the fact that with this equipment you can do most of the work performed related to fasteners of various types.
Important! Kohl needed universal helper- this applies to professional furniture makers, it would be better to purchase industrial equipment, which is made more accurately and efficiently. It is such a device that will be preferable and will quickly pay for itself, especially if you also take into account the fact that this device often comes with a lot of different templates, stops and other little things that are also necessary in the work. They are much cheaper than buying at retail.
And yet this device, if necessary, can be made with your own hands.
Such equipment, perhaps, is needed not so often in a particular production, and even home master- especially. So for many users, doing it yourself will be much more profitable.
If such design remains relevant, then it is necessary to prepare materials for manufacturing homemade conductor for drilling under confirmation:
- corner. You should stop your choice on the unequal type of this rental - its possibilities are wider. The corner shelf must be chosen with the greatest thickness, which can reach up to 8 mm. This is quite justified, since then you can insert guide bushings, outside diameter which reaches 6 mm. Based on this, drills from 3.5 to 4 mm can be used. Even if that diameter is not enough, then the material is drilled with a large drill, without using any other devices.
- Guide bushings. Here it will be preferable to use stainless steel pipes, which are selected, first of all, according to the inner diameter. Example: a 6×1.5 pipe is suitable for a drill no larger than 2.7 in diameter. Explanation: its inner hole will be 3 mm, and a small gap along the entire inner diameter is taken into account due to the thermal expansion of the material. The sleeve length is the depth of the hole in the corner, multiplied by two or more. The fit of the bushings is either transitional, or with an interference fit, or according to the shaft system. The latter is the most appropriate.
Instead of pipes, of course, you can use ready-made bushings used in wire drawing machines - such are available, for example, in mechanical engineering. Such parts (even used ones) will come in handy: they are made of alloyed steels and have an almost unlimited service life.
Choice of mounting method
Options:
- Fixing with self-tapping screws. They are screwed into the part, which prevents the device from moving due to friction. This is convenient because these marks will be needed for subsequent drilling of other holes.
- Spring stop. It will securely fix the conductor on the part. For such an emphasis, a flat spring with an appropriate clamping force is suitable.
- External clamps. They need to be placed underneath rubber gaskets. Corrugated rubber is ideal as a material. This, of course, slightly increases the weight of the tool, and the elasticity of the pads can negatively affect the squareness of the bushings. To prevent this from happening, the drill is inserted into the sleeve in order to mark the hole, and only then the clamps are clamped.
For drilling pipes and cylindrical parts
AT modern furniture not only chipboard, fiberboard, MDF and wood are used. As additional elements may apply steel pipes different diameter. Covered with chrome or stainless steel, they perfectly complement the overall furniture ensemble.
It is very difficult to drill a spherical surface - the drill strives to slip to the side. Yes, and marking is not so easy when there are a lot of holes and they are arranged in several rows.
In order for the notorious colander to turn out of the pipe, but the correct part with precisely made holes, you need a jig - this perfect solution in the given situation.
There are steel conductors made in the form of an adjustable clamp. This design feature allows you to clamp pipes in them different diameter and drill holes in them with high precision.
Without being able to make such a device, you can use waste materials, making an even simpler device using a bar and a strip of plywood. So, a bar cut diagonally lengthwise into circular saw, can be nailed or screwed with screws at an angle of 90 ° to plywood. The resulting device is superimposed on top of the pipe, and a strip of plywood, resting against a table or workbench, does not allow the specified angle to be violated. Pre-drilled holes in the bar desired diameter placed taking into account the required distances between future holes, which will allow you to quickly and accurately drill the pipe exactly according to the drawings.
Do-it-yourself furniture conductors and templates
How conductors are made is now clear, as well as their need for furniture production.
Not only conductors, but also templates are necessary in furniture production. The simplest template will sometimes save a lot of time and enable no less accurate drilling than a jig.
For example, the simplest metal prefabricated invoice template, consisting of two sheet blanks measuring 130 × 70 mm and a steel square with a cross section of 20 mm. They are interconnected by screws in the upper part of the structure - this is how they are attached to the square. The square is drilled under the bushings, where the latter are pressed. Such a device for drilling holes in the end of a part made of chipboard will make it possible to drill without thinking about marking and perpendicular drilling at all. And the price of this equipment is below any idea of \u200b\u200bsavings.
Instead of metal, you can and should use those materials that are inexpensive and easy to process.
Materials:
- Plywood.
- Textolite or fiberglass - preferably thick.
- Hard wood.
- Hardboard or its equivalent.
It must be borne in mind that these materials are short-lived, and so that the devices do not have to be made every day, it is quite reasonable to press them into metal tubes.
In conclusion, it is worth summarizing what has been said. Making a jig or a template yourself or buying it in a store is up to each individual. If a home craftsman needs to make some kind of furniture in a single copy and there is material for the conductor, as well as the possibility of manufacturing it, you can use this. It is possible that such equipment will never be useful to the master again.
But if even a small furniture workshop is engaged in the production of mass-produced furniture, and enough people work in it, it is probably easier to purchase something ready-made, especially since these irreplaceable assistants they will need masters in several copies.
In the latter case, it makes sense to purchase more expensive, accurate and wear-resistant conductors instead of making handicraft ones that are less accurate and durable.
Good luck in your work!
It is possible to make holes in products based on natural wood, metal, MDF or chipboard as much as possible and accurately using a special jig. This is an indispensable thing for those who are engaged in the production of furniture, and such a device is also needed in other areas.
Such a conductor can be purchased ready-made, or you can make it yourself.
Features of application in the furniture industry
Conductors and templates are needed when assembling furniture. Thanks to such things, you will prevent a common problem that occurs during drilling - the drill hits the part at the wrong angle. Correcting such an error will take an extremely long time, in some cases it will even be impossible.
And the jig for making holes will allow not only to correctly orient the working tool, but still prevent it from going astray from the desired trajectory.
Conductors in the furniture industry and templates are used in the following cases:
During the use of such a device, the assembly process will be much easier and faster, you can make the necessary holes, regardless of how far they should be located from the edge of the part and how wide it is.
At self assembly furniture often has to join parts end-to-end with dowels. Holes for dowels are best done with a special jig. The peculiarity of dowels is that despite the fact that such fasteners, although outdated, are still relevant in the manufacture of furniture.
The difficulty in their application lies in the fact that the axes of the holes that are made in the parts when connected must have a right angle with each other. Accordingly, they should be placed strictly perpendicular to each other. It is difficult to do this without a special device. So if you want to reach High Quality performance, it is recommended to buy a jig for dowels.
Other uses
Hole jigs are not only used in furniture production. Quite often they are used when you need to make a hole in a pipe or other part. cylindrical shape. Thanks to them, you can quality hole even in small diameter pipes.
Such devices are versatile and easy to use, so they are also used in the following industries:
- mechanical engineering - drilling holes in workpieces of various sizes based on different materials;
- construction - drilling holes in building structures;
- home communications - as already mentioned, drilling pipes and more.
Modern drilling jigs can be different sizes and have different principle work. Some of them are complex, so they are easier to buy. And some modifications can be made independently, especially since some serial furniture models, especially those with a universal purpose, are expensive.
Benefits of using
In fact, such a conductor acts as a template for making holes so that they are made as accurately as possible. They can be used for those holes whose axis is perpendicular to the surface of the workpiece, as well as for working at an angle.
This tool is great alternative sketches and hand measurements. You can place the drill strictly at the right angle with respect to the workpiece and do not allow any deviation. The result will be especially noticeable when it comes to making deep holes.
If you use such a high quality fixture for working with chipboard, then it should have the following characteristics:
- promote quick assembly furniture without the need to use complex tools;
- make it possible to make several holes at the same time without manual marking;
- significantly improve the quality of work with a drill.
Conductors are made on the basis of different materials, there are models based on plastic or organic glass. However, steel is considered the best option. with advantages such as:
- minimum probability of deformation;
- the drill is directed as clearly as possible;
- no heat during operation.
Very often in the role furniture conductors apply overhead models based on lightweight materials that are easy to manipulate. Many use factory or homemade tools.
And the most qualified and experienced craftsmen they no longer use the conductor, because they can easily make a hole in the structures as accurately as possible on their own. But this is not for everyone.
The key advantage of such a device is that even the person who does not have the proper experience can perform the work as accurately and efficiently as possible. You do not have to perform markings and complex preliminary calculations. You will save a lot of time and make furniture much faster.
Instrument classification
Before you buy a ready-made conductor or make it yourself, you need to decide what tasks you will solve with it, and only then you need to select suitable option in design and function.
Jig for drilling holes with your own hands
As already mentioned, depending on the scope of use and design, some options can be done by yourself, so you will save a significant amount.
Before work, find the required drawing of the device and make everything strictly according to it.
Necessary tools for work:
- welding machine;
- Bulgarian;
- drill;
- locksmith accessories.
To make the simplest version of the conductor with your own hands, we perform the following steps:
As you can see, such a device is very simple in terms of self-manufacturing, but it will greatly simplify the work if you are engaged in the manufacture of furniture. If you are doing this purely as an amateur, then this option will be enough. If you can't make your own, buy ready-made version perhaps the simplest and least expensive.
And here professional equipment will cost much more, the expediency of its acquisition is already there when it comes to at least small batch production. But with its help you can simply and quickly connect pieces of furniture or repair it.
So, you have learned what a hole jig is and how it helps in the manufacture of furniture. This device can be purchased from ready-made, and do it yourself.
